Apple says Steve Jobs iPhone 4 email exchange is fake

Boy Genius Report broke the news which was then picked up by other news sites and spread across the web. In the exchange Jobs gave some surprising responses with the final one being the most un-Jobs-like. Saying “Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it.” to an angry customer got many questioning if Jobs was still of sound mind or if this was someone else sending mails. Boy Genius Report did later update its coverage to state that it wasn’t Jobs who said that line, but the customer.

Now it has been confirmed that the exchange was indeed fake. Apple has responded to questions about what was written by making it clear they are not the words of Steve Jobs.

AppleInsider has also stepped up to say it was offered the same e-mail exchange a couple of days earlier from Burford Advertising. It’s unclear how much money Burford was asking for, or how much Boy Genius Report ended up paying. Whatever the final figure was it was too much as this was a hoax.

In BGR’s defense they have printed up the full header information and the exchange screenshots. On paper it certainly looks legitimate. But now Apple has said it was fake meaning this is just a well-executed hoax.

What this does show is how much value people put on e-mails from Steve Jobs. Even the most innocent of responses from him gets widely reported. Combine such e-mails with a potentially huge iPhone issue days after launch and there’s money to be made.

I suspect many people would have already made their minds up that this was fake. The responses, although short, are quite different from his usual comments.